Release Date: 07 January 2005
Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 747313249022
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: RAMEAU
Description
Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764)Ballet SuitesJean-Philippe Rameau was born in Dijon in 1683, aclose contemporary of Bach, Handel and Telemann, butunlike them he had a strangely unbalanced career.During the first half of his working life he was famousfor his keyboard music and publications on musicaltheory. Then, at the age of fifty, he launched himselfinto the world of opera - 'the age when the ordinarymortal begins to decay' said one of his earlybiographers - and over the next thirty years he went onto write nearly thirty theatrical entertainments. By 1749his works so dominated the Paris Opera that a rulingwas made that the company could stage only two of hisoperas a year 'for fear of discouraging othercomposers'.The French public were fickle though, and a decadeafter Rameau's death in 1764 his operas had virtuallydisappeared from the stage - 'people had grown tired ofworshipping at the same altar' admitted one of hisfollowers. Despite the superlative quality of their musicand an encouraging increase in the number of recentrevivals, his operas have yet to re-enter the regularoperatic repertory, but they have found a new lease oflife on CD, and their ballet movements have becomeparticularly popular. In Rameau's time it was customaryto collect together the best of the ballet movements intoan orchestral suite, introduced by the opera's overture,and perform them in concert. This disc offers three suchsuites.Platee was first performed at the palace ofVersailles in 1745 to celebrate the marriage of theDauphin and the Spanish Infanta Maria Teresa.Unusually for Rameau, it was comedy, with a plotwhich was both simple and instantly appealing. In orderto cure the jealousy of his queen, the god Jupiter feignslove for Platee, but Platee, it turns out, is an ugly froglikenymph who inhabits a swamp and lives under themisapprehension that she is irresistible to men.Everyone has a laugh at her expense. This is cruellerthan at first appears because the joke was really on theunfortunate Maria Teresa who was apparently not anotable beauty herself.Dance was the life-blood of the French court, and itpermeated every sphere of musical life. French operacomposers became expert at weaving ballet movementsinto the dramatic fabric of their works. In Platee theballet episodes are frequent and essential to the overalldramatic design. The original dance steps for allRameau's ballets are lost, but the music itself is often sovivid that it suggests its own choreography. The Oragewith its swirling, tempestuous string writing could benothing else but a storm whipped up by the gods, and inthe imaginary theatre of the mind you can easilyvisualise all the characters running for cover. The Airpour des fous gais et des fous tristes (Air for the happyand sad lunatics) is more sophisticated, and thepublished libretto tells us that the happy characters weredressed as babies and the sad ones clothed as Greekphilosophers. Rameau's music is exceptionallyanimated, with such abrupt changes of
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Goran Filipec
Fukada/Watani
Ferrero/Socias
